


Midnight Oil

by Charl_Meister94



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon Rewrite, Confessions, F/M, Hate to Love, Light Angst, Romance, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:33:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26006527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charl_Meister94/pseuds/Charl_Meister94
Summary: What if Katara had been the one to confront Zuko, instead of Toph, after his failed attempt to join the gang at the Western Air Temple? A canon rewrite and one-shot exposing truths and feelings that were only half-realized in the Crystal Catacombs.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 205





	Midnight Oil

**Author's Note:**

> So this idea came to me and I thought it would be an interesting plot point to write on. Nothing too drawn out, because at the moment my brain cannot handle more than just a one-shot. Also part of me was craving this sort of scenario between Zuko and Katara. Hope you enjoy~

The eyes revealed many things. They were glassy portals swirling with deep, rich colors that could either draw one into its mystifying light or repel intruders with cold shadows of aloof disdain. And his eyes — fiery pits of intrigue and danger — kept tugging her by the neck. Thin cords of flames entangling her throat, threatening to burn away all her sense of self-preservation. Because he was the enemy. A blistering thorn in her side.

Yet, Katara had grown used to that pain. Had found herself anticipating the moments he’d appear to attempt the Avatar’s capture. That derisive stare, the sour and stiff set of his mouth. That hard jawline; every detail of his stoic, brooding visage was burned deep into her memory. It hovered in her dreams with a suffocating, dizzying presence. But the most perplexing thing was the curiosity drawn at the sight of his scar. The indelible mark of violence he’d suffered and perpetuated against others. It had made Katara fear him in the beginning.

Until that moment in the Crystal Catacombs. When she’d gotten a glimpse of something melancholy and vulnerable beneath that brusque and crude exterior. It had reminded her that he was just a kid, like the rest of them, trying to figure things out the only way he knew how.

He couldn’t have been much older than Sokka. After all, his voice was still scratchy with evidence of innocence being scrubbed raw into a callous maturity. But Katara hated him. She was sure of it. He stood in the way of their victory. And when the time had come for him to choose between the right and evil thing, he’d clung to what was inherent of his people. And Katara had never felt more betrayed than in that moment. Because she’d been ready to be burned alive by those amber flames. Had felt trust, like a gentle palm, stroke at her belly when he’d allowed her to touch his scar.

That’s why he had to be destroyed. That’s why he was the most vile, repulsive jerk she’d ever met. That’s why she wanted to scream bloody murder and kill him when he appeared before them at the Western Air Temple. Asking for forgiveness and acceptance into their group, no less!? Katara uncapped her water skein with a sharp flick of her thumb and doused the crowned prince with an angry water whip.

The fire bender falling on his behind, soaked and pathetically dripping water amused something sadistic inside the water bender. But it was hardly enough to satisfy the violent trashing within her veins, nor quell her spiked heartbeat when their eyes met through the damp strands fallen over Zuko’s brows.

“Get out of here. Now. And if we see you again,” she ground her teeth and clenched her shaking fists, “well…we better not see you again.” She caught the dwindling light of pride in his gaze, watched his defeated gait as he walked away, and then huffed as he disappeared from sight.

“Can you believe that guy? Either he drank cactus juice before coming here or got juiced up on something else. And I’m not talking—”

“Shut up, Sokka,” Katara shot in a dry tone, stalking off from the rest of the group — she was well aware of the probing stares jabbing at her back, but never turned back to acknowledge them.

***

It had been a stupid plan from the beginning. Zuko knew that well enough. Even with all his role-play prep, mimicking his uncle’s crazy ramblings of wisdom, it couldn’t have braced him for the caustic rejection. Especially Katara’s.

The fire bender knew blood-lust when he saw it; the water bender’s eyes had been full of it. If it had been left up to her, Zuko’s final moments would’ve been a wasted effort at doing the right thing.

He dug the heels of his palms in his sockets, eyes stinging with sleep. The past few days had been a miserable blur of insomnia. The lethargy he felt couldn’t be cured by sleep, but he set out his bed roll anyway and curled onto his side beneath his tent. The night felt particularly chilly and he made himself a fire to keep warm.

He closed his eyes, attempting to surrender his mind to the creeping shadows growing thick at the edges of his conscious. But there was a snap and rustle that had him shooting up, ramrod straight, rubbing away the heaviness settling over his vision.

“Who’s there?” he demanded, rising from his bed roll. The ensuing silence made his ears ring. Everything was eerily still. Then he heard movement again and sent a blast of fire in the direction of the sound.

“Whoever you are, I’m not interested in playing games. Now show yourself.” 

Then there was a sharp hiss as some thing sliced through the air nicking his ear. He cursed at the pain but something clamped his hand before he could touch his ear and knocked him back into the bark of a tree, pinning his wrist in place. An ice cuff.

“Typical Zuko.” The familiar voice had him squinting against the shadows and those cold eyes of blue met his.

“Katara?” He looked to his wrist, clenching his fist, “What are you doing?”

“That’s what I want to know Zuko. What exactly is your play here?” she asked, advancing on him slowly.

He frowned, “What are you talking about?” The ice tightened around his wrist, making his eyes flash with something akin to alarm.

“You following us here to the Western Air Temple. Trying to join us. What. Do. You. Actually. Want?” She was toe-to-toe with him now. “And I may not be as good as Toph who can tell when people are lying, but you’d better tell me the truth right now. Or spirits help you…” she growled out.

The crowned prince didn’t roll his eyes nor scoff at the very serious threat edging the water bender’s tone. Zuko couldn’t remember ever seeing such malice in anyone’s eyes but his father’s.

“I already told you the truth. What else do you want me to say, Katara? I don’t have any grand scheme up my sleeve to hand you all over to my father. I’m trying to do the right thing. Why won’t you let me?”

“Because you’re nothing but a conniving liar, Zuko, or did you forget? You had plenty opportunity to do the right thing, back in Ba Sing Se! But you’re just like a wombat-wolf returning to its own vomit. You can’t help the evil inside you.”

The ice was slowly numbing his wrist, growing tighter and spreading sensations of pins and needles down his arm to the tips of his fingers. But the pain was almost nothing to the rage bubbling in his veins.

“What happened in Ba Sing Se, I’m sorry. I really am, but at the time I thought I was making the right choice.”

She scoffed crudely, arms crossing over her chest, “Yet here you are. Or did you come to us because your precious father still thinks you’re a worthless bastard?” She caught the flicker of emotion within those twin furnaces and barked a laugh. “So that’s it, isn’t it? In a last act of defiance, the poor Fire Nation prince tries to get daddy’s attention by joining up with the Avatar?” Her laughter turned bitter with cynicism as she clapped slowly. “Real clever Zuko, genius in fact. Truly you are a class act.”

The fire bender grit his teeth, glaring at Katara now, “You don’t know everything, Katara.”

“No, but I do know you’re more scum than your father. At least he doesn’t try to pretend to be something he’s not.”

“I’m trying to do the right thing!”

“You’ve never been capable of doing the right thing, Zuko!”

The ice exploded from his wrist then, splinters flying. Katara didn’t budge when her left cheek was smarted, tiny dots of blood lined the wound. Instead her stance shifted to a defensive form, hand going to her water skein. Ready.

“You don’t get to tell me that my intentions aren’t good. Do you think you’re some angel? Who made you the supreme council to judge anyone’s intentions? If you won’t let me help you, then all of you would have done all this training for nothing and die pathetic, nameless nobodies. You need me.”

Katara’s eyes slit dangerously as she stood evenly with Zuko, “We need nothing from you, you arrogant jerk. This is Aang’s fight.”

“I never said it wasn’t. But Aang needs a fire bending teacher, Katara. What are you going to do? Let him go against my father ill-prepared because you’re too childish to let go a grudge?”

Her head snapped back with umbrage, hearing the echo of Toph’s words earlier when they’d all talked over Zuko’s appearance. She’d been the only one to say Zuko deserved a chance. But Toph was a naïve kid who didn’t understand anything.

“Oh, I’m childish? Then what the hell does that make you, Zuko?”

“The only one who cares enough to put differences aside so we can see this war end!”

Her mouth clicked shut as she blinked daggers at him. Zuko’s gaze blazed right back. “I’ll say it again, Katara. I’m sorry. I really am sorry about what happened in Ba Sing Se. But…I don’t regret it. You said you wanted the truth. So, I’m giving it to you. All of it.”

Her eyes remained hateful slits, watching him shift back against the tree as he folded his arms over his chest.

“When I went back home, I was happy. After three years of being banished, I wanted nothing more than to go back to everything I knew and loved. I wanted to go back to where things had made sense. But I hated it there. I felt as if I never belonged. And I should’ve seen it coming. I’d endured too much to think I could go back to the way I was. I could never be the son my father wanted, because I’m nothing like him. I’m definitely nothing like Azula,” he said on a sour scoff, “even though I tried so hard to be.”

He exhaled ruefully, hands running up into his hair, “Whether you want to believe me or not, that day in the catacombs stayed with me. I couldn’t forget the look on your face. I didn’t want to hurt you, Katara. I never meant to.” His voice was mellow now, soft with contrition as he looked toward her. Behind them, the fire crackled and popped.

“But you did,” she said, hugging her arms around her waist and looking away from him when she felt that peculiar prick within her chest beneath his gaze.

“And you have every right to be angry with me.” He pushed away from the tree, shifting closer to her. “I want to make things right, I really do. But I always mess everything up on my own. I don’t have it all figured out, Katara. I won’t pretend that I do. Just tell me what you want me to do and I’ll do it, because I don’t want you to hate me.”

She looked up at him then, turning herself to face him. That’s when she realized he was standing much taller than the last time she’d seen him. His hair had grown an inch or so too. Even his eyes seemed a lot sharper, more assertive than before. And not with anger. But something else.

“You’re bleeding,” he remarked in a low murmur.

Katara sucked in a breath at the brush of heat against her cheek and smacked away the offending hand.

Zuko’s lips twitched with a frown, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have…”

Katara looked up at him, fingers pressed to her warm face, “No, you didn’t do anything wrong, you just surprised me. I didn’t mean to hit you, I’m not…”

It was hard to focus when Zuko watched her so intently – as if he were studying her every reflex, down to each breath, memorizing its cadence. Even if he was on their side now, he was still as dangerous as he’d been in the past. In fact, Katara felt he was more dangerous now. Because her pulse quickened as their gazes met and there was that tongue of fire teasing round her neck again when the fire bender cleared his throat.

“Are you afraid of me, Katara?” The question almost escaped on the wind howling between them. She would have ignored it, if Zuko didn’t seem so pained in anticipation of her response. And he angled his face away too, so that his scar was obscured towards the darkness.

“No, I’m not afraid of you, Zuko. It’s not as if I couldn’t go head to head with you in a fight…and win.” 

The fire bender chuckled at that, “Is that so?” The smug tilt of his lips was fleeting as he faced her, “So, would you be upset if I touched you again?”

Katara blinked up at him, wetting her lips as the air wound itself tight around them. This was where she should’ve stepped back, now that all her suspicions had been allayed. But Zuko was unraveling all sorts of novel impulses inside her with just that deep stare. And she wanted to feel his hand against her skin. Properly this time. Even though she shouldn’t. Her lips moved before her thoughts could catch up, and she was leaning into the warm palm, long fingers spidering over her cheek to the edges of her hair. 

He stroked beneath the slight wound and when she opened her eyes, he was watching her closely. In the past, his eyes had always unnerved her – a gaze that pierced straight to her core with cold scrutiny. But now, she was being drawn into its soft light and it was too easy to follow the settling pressure at her back, pulling her towards him. Their lips met, eyes fluttering closed. Katara’s lips parted with the motion of Zuko’s kiss and her hands looped around his neck at the same time he wrapped her waist in his arms.

Her experience with kissing had started and ended with Aang. When Jet had been a thing, he’d tried kissing her in the treehouse, but she had turned her face away and stepped back. He was the first boy to arouse an awareness of desire inside her, but Katara had been too frightened by the discovery then to allow Jet to do what he wanted with her.

Aang’s kisses had been chaste. Expectantly childlike, so much so that it had left Katara feeling awkward each time. But Zuko…his kisses were confident and stirring; gentle yet passionate. She tried her best to mimic his prowess, clumsy reactions met with guiding control. And soon, the fire bender was cupping her jaw as she learned his rhythm. Her teeth stopped knocking his, and when her coordination finally began to match, his tongue slipped into her mouth.

Katara failed to swallow her moan at the frisson shooting up her spine from the contact, but she realized it was what Zuko wanted to hear. He echoed her with a low murmur and within seconds, he’d gathered her and pushed her back against the tree while kissing her. Hard. He would bite into her lower lip, suck her tongue into his mouth, then do an incredible thing of capturing her mouth in a deep kiss that had Katara clinging to his back and pressing herself into his kisses.

His fingers raked at the outsides of her thighs, dragging her blue tunic up to expose her legs. She could do nothing but gasp his name and grab at his shoulders when his hands squeezed the undersides of her thighs, lifting her against the tree. She chased his lips when he pulled back and her lashes fluttered apart to find her dewy gaze reflected in the molten honey of his, going dark with lust.

“Is this okay?” he asked, voice more hoarse than usual.

Instead of a verbal response, she kissed him as fiercely as he’d done. Then they were palming at each other with an urgent hunger. Fire scorched through her veins. Liquid heat thrashed through his. And in the next moment when their gazes met, both breathing heavy against each other, Zuko had discarded her undergarments while Katara had pulled him free from his pants. He rasped something sinful, head dipping to kiss her throat. Katara blushed at the sound of his cursing.

Sharp teeth bit into her skin, sending delicious shivers through her as her head lolled to the side, eyes closing, drunk on the feeling of him sucking at her flesh. Then they snapped open when his touch stroke between her legs.

Zuko drew back, eyes tracking the tremble of her lips, his fingers unrelenting with its rhythm against her sex. Her pupils rounded with evidence of innocence, but her hips rocked up and up into his hand, seeking more of this new pleasure he gave her. But when his finger slowly probed and pushed against her entrance, she gasped and pushed at his shoulder.

“No…”

His hand stopped and he blinked at her, “No?”

Katara licked her lips and flinched when his finger slid out of her, leaving her throbbing for that foreign sensation. It was confusing and scary.

“I’m…what are we doing?” she whispered.

Zuko thumbed over her lips, plump and hot from his kisses, “Something I guess you’ve never done before.” She shook her head and the fire bender’s face became a shadow of need, “I want you, Katara. I want you really bad.” His forehead touched hers, fingers slipping down her throat to brush over her breast. She heard him swallow. “But we can stop, we don’t have to go any further than this.” Because this perhaps wasn’t even the time nor place.

He was giving her an out. She could leave now, virginity intact and confident that he really wasn’t the enemy. But she’d allowed him to kiss her. Had shared more intimacy with him in a few minutes than she ever could with Aang. And when she swallowed, all she tasted was a bittersweet yearning. Not regret. But an overwhelming greed that wouldn’t go away unless she had Zuko.

She wet her lips, hands palming his cheeks as she lifted his face to hers, “You want me?”

He nodded, lips and tongue ghosting over her mouth, “I couldn’t get you out of my head, Katara. When you touched my scar…when you offered to heal me,” he turned his face to her right hand, pressing his lips to her palm, “I wanted to kiss you then.”

She flushed at the confession, eyes dropping to his mouth, “I wanted to kiss you, too.”

The fire bender groaned and kissed her again, drinking down her sighs and moans. She squeezed at his shoulder, gasping when his mouth found her throat again. “I’ll be gentle,” he murmured against her skin and his voice soothed her anxiety. Her inhibitions melted in the hot, thick honey of his eyes.

Zuko took his time touching every inch of her over her clothes; he cupped her breasts and kissed at them through the fabric. He touched the exposed parts of her, stealing her breath with each heady kiss. Then he was on his knees after setting her on her feet.

Katara reacted with alarm, floundering and grabbing his face when he lifted her tunic. Wide, blue eyes accosted him. “What are you doing?”

He smiled up at her with a seducer’s allure and drew her leg forward, pressing a kiss to her thigh. “In the Fire Nation, a woman’s pleasure is just as important as the man’s.” Her bare legs trembled with goosebumps when his mouth brushed the skin just above the nest of curls. Her stomach jolted from the electricity of his tongue. “There are several ways to make a woman feel good.” His warm breath so close to her sex made the water bender whimper. “And this is my personal favorite.”

When his tongue parted her folds and found her clitoris, Katara almost buckled from the direct stimulation. Zuko lifted her thigh over his shoulder, never losing momentum as he imbibed her essence. His rhythm paced between rapid flicks of his tongue, to long, slow strokes and teasing sucks that had Katara sobbing and mewling into the palm pressed over her mouth. It was almost too much to bear. Zuko’s tongue was a ball of fire that she wanted to burn her whole.

The fire bender could feel she was close, in the quickening rut of her hips and the way her fingers threaded tight in his hair. Katara’s stomach knotted at the sound of his dark encouragements and then her thigh pressed him even closer as her body seized up and bowed over in orgasm. Cries slipped from between her fingers, head thrown back against the tree as her breasts shook and heaved.

Zuko kissed her stomach again, rising to his feet, cupping the sides of Katara’s face when her lips crashed against his. She tasted herself on his tongue and when her hand wrapped around the fire bender, her heart lurched at the feeling of hot iron. She drew back to look at him, saw the primal need in his gaze and held tight to him when he lifted her again. The blunt head of his erection pressed up against her entrance and she soon realized she kept pulling up when he applied pressure.

Zuko held her hips firm and spoke in husky tones, “I won’t hurt you. Just take a breath, Katara.” And she did. He rocked into her again and again, it was almost like a soothing sensation. Until he breached her entrance and Katara cried out, legs tightening around the fire bender’s waist.

He looked at her, saw the flash of pain in her eyes and kissed her. Once. Twice. His soft kisses matched his shallow thrusts, and when his hips were flush to hers, Katara groaned and hugged tight to his shoulders. She blinked back tears, swallowing against the lump in her throat.

Zuko braced a hand against the tree, head bent for a moment to pace himself – give Katara time to adjust. She nuzzled his face and when he lifted his eyes, she kissed him and he began to move with slow, fluid thrusts. She was small. Fragile. So, he was careful not to bruise her. He didn’t start moving faster until Katara’s hand slid down his back to his backside. Then when she squeezed, fingers digging into the taut flesh, his strokes picked up and she moaned her approval.

She held tight to her only semblance of gravity and coherence, saving her from being reduced to ash and smoke in the midst of flames consuming her from the inside out. But that pain was all she wanted; her toes curled, and she gasped when Zuko’s angle had him hitting a dizzyingly good spot.

“Zuko…Zuko I’m…”

His face was buried into her neck and he groaned in response, knowing exactly what she was going to say. He was close too and he panted her name in sultry reverence, voice dissolving into raspy moans as he emptied himself inside her. It was on his final, deep stroke that Katara shuddered in his arms, nails raking down his back. Her hips bucked, milking her orgasm from Zuko and the fire bender cursed from the sharp assault of oversensitive nerves and pulled away from the tree.

Next, Katara was falling and Zuko landed on his back with her gathered against his chest as a grunt punched out of him. The two blinked at each other in shock then began laughing. His palm rubbed along her spine while Katara laid her cheek to the fabric of his tunic. She mimicked the comfort against her back, fingers drawing idle patterns over his chest.

“Are you okay?”

Katara nodded and Zuko could hear the smile in her voice, “More than okay.”

“The sun will rise soon,” he mused aloud. Katara realized the implication and lifted away from the fire bender with tinted cheeks and averted eyes.

“Katara?” he questioned, rising on his elbows while she snatched her undergarments and began dressing quickly. He did the same thing. “I only said that so you can get back to camp before the others wake up. Wouldn’t it be suspicious if you were missing?”

She nodded, still unable to look the fire bender in the eye, “Yeah…they’d be suspicious and throw a search party, even though I’m usually the first person to wake up.”

“Oh? Is that so?” Zuko said, good eyebrow raising at that odd note of sarcasm from the water bender.

Katara shrugged, “I have to get everyone’s meal prepared for the day, do any laundry that’s sitting around and plan our day, so we get as much done as possible.” When she finally chanced a look at him, he was watching her with something close to admiration.

“You’re amazing, Katara.”

She tucked hair behind her ear, ducking her head, “It’s nothing really, someone’s gotta make sure it’s all done.”

The fire bender’s mouth twitched with traces of a smile. Katara began to move when his hand gripped around her waist. She watched conflict shadow his face and mirrored the frown weighting his lips.

“Will you…can I see you again?”

She tilted her head, blinking at him – perplexed. “Aren’t you going to join our group?”

Zuko’s good eye went wide and then he smiled. He’d been given another chance. One he wouldn’t throw away as he’d done the first time.

“Yeah, and I won’t take no for an answer this time.”

Katara smiled back, “You wouldn’t be Zuko without that annoying persistence.”

***


End file.
